AN UNDISCOVERED ISLAND. 193 



it falls in his way, he evokes forces so unusual that 

 they seem supernatural to those who do not 

 understand his power, but the end which lies be 

 fore him is always real, enduring, and noble ; 

 something which belongs to the eternal order of 

 things.&quot; 



&quot; For that matter,&quot; I interrupted, &quot; it grows more 

 and more difficult to distinguish between the forces 

 and the achievements that we have thought real and 

 possible, and those which have seemed only dreams 

 and visions. Men are doing things every day by 

 mechanical agencies which the most famous of the 

 old magicians failed to accomplish. The visions of 

 great minds are realities discovered a little in ad 

 vance of their universal recognition.&quot; 



&quot; As I was saying,&quot; continued the Poet, &quot; most 

 men hold Prospero to be a mere wonder-worker, a 

 magician who puts his arts on and off with his 

 robe ; they do not know that he stands for the 

 greatest force in the world. For the Imagination is 

 not only the inspiring leader of men in their strange 

 journey through life, but their nearest, most con 

 stant, and most practical helper and sustainer. 

 That our souls would have starved without the 

 Imagination we are all, I think, agreed ; without 

 Imagination we should have seen and remembered 

 nothing on our long journey but the path at our 

 feet. The heavens above us, the great, mysterious 

 world about us, would have meant no more to us 

 than to the birds and the beasts that have perished 



